A stable favourite with the Tony Gollan yard, six year-old Capitalist gelding King Kapa is always in the mix somewhere in his races and managed to get his head in front at Eagle Farm on Saturday to take out the $160,000 Listed BRC Ascot Quality (1000m).
Ridden by Cejay Graham, King Kapa chimed in with a well timed run to snatch a neck win over the favourite Wanda Rox.
“I'm absolutely thrilled. He never leaves the stable, this horse. He's a bugger on the trucks, so he doesn't even go to Embrook for a freshen up. He just stays in the yard the whole time and after a run we just play about with him on the treadmill,” said Tony Gollan.
“If you had said a year ago, he'd still be racing now I wouldn’t have believed it. He's got aches and pains, this bloke, but he's just loving life.
“He's just a real tradesman around the yard. He's a very happy horse in the stable, and he just keeps fronting up. I said to the owners in the summer, there's no point spelling him. If we spell him, we may as well retire him, so we just keep ticking him along, and here we are winning an Ascot Handicap, which is a very strong rendition of it today as well.”
A $50,000 purchase for Sterling Bloodstock from the Newgate Farm draft at the 2020 Magic Millions, King Kapa is now a two time stakes-winner and advances his record to eight wins and seven placings from 31 starts with earnings in excess of $534,000.
Bred by Belinda Bateman, King Kapa is a half-brother to stakes-placed Churning and is the best of four winners from five to race from stakes-winning Jet Spur mare Emmalene, a sister to the dam of Group I winning sprinter Uncommon James
Emmalene has changed hands several times in recent years and has not had a foal for the past two years, although was covered last spring by Victor Ludorum (GB).
King Kapa is the seventh stakes-winner this season for Newgate Farm’s Capitalist, whose fee has been set at $44,000.
